The Chinese Traditional Acceptance of Information from the View of Contemporary Communication Theory

The Chinese Traditional Acceptance of Information from the View of Contemporary Communication Theory Shao Peiren Fellow of Academic Committee of Zhejiang University, Deputy Director for the Faculty of Humanities, Zhejiang University, Director for Institute of Communication Studies, Zhejiang University, and PhD. candidate supervisor. Communication School of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310028 Telephone :(86) 0571-8827-3032 Email: [email protected] Abstract Language is proper to mankind, the externalization of human kindness. Because of it what an audience accepts is his self-portrait, we can analyze and get to know the state, rules and characteristics of Chinese ancient audience thorough traditional information acceptance concept and the interpretation. We can get that “Guan”, “Wei” and “Wen” is special Chinese acceptance concept by the ways of basing on the textual research, discrimination and organization of various concepts of acceptance of information at one end and analyzing and reasoning of relevant information and contemporary research achievements at the other end. The emotions of these three concepts reflect the ancient Chinese unique acceptance state and the quintessence of the dated brightness comes through them. This paper also shows five chief notes: (1), piety and seriousness; (2) chewing and repetition; (3) subtila and depth; (4) hierarchy and progress; (5) contact and peep. “It is language that makes human being what he is. He who can not use a language can not be regarded as a true man”. Language, original and peculiar to human, is the element and the code of information dissemination; is the hallmark and characteristic of mankind. And at the same time it is a psychological weapon used by men in knowing the world, reflecting the world and in remoulding the world. Therefore, we get down to applying embryology, smeiology, communication and acceptance theory as well as their methods, aiming at exploring the emergence and evolvement of the Chinese acceptance concepts, in turn guiding and inferring the state and features of ancient Chinese audience to a large extent and showing the world another treasure of the traditional Chinese cultures In traditional Chinese culture, lots of concepts and vocabularies are used to represent and reflect the activities of information accepting. We can group these words into three: on vision, there are “Jian”, “Kan”, “Shi”, “Guan” and “Du”; on auditory, there are “Ting” and “Wen”; on palate, there are “Pin”, “Chang”, “Wei” and “JuJue”. However, it comes into being, no mater in the time of emergence, frequency or identifiable degree, that “Guan”, “Wei” and “Zhi” can mostly reflect and reveal the primeval and consistent mental state and operating characteristics in information acceptance and embodies that the dated Eastern Wisdom still rings in communication, knowledge and acceptance. And what’s more, the uniqueness of ancient Chinese can be found under the help of the latest research finding primarily. Guan: accepting information detailed and elegantly Guan means watching carefully. “To watch and listen without further understanding is no better than unknown”. [2] However, watching is no Guan because of less of meticulousness and concentration. Guan is always detailed and serious-minded. The word “Kan” in Chinese does not only represent information acceptance but visit, treat, look after and guard while “Guan” means accepting information in a large measure. “Be on the lookout”, “go sightseeing”, “view and admire” and “view” seems at the first sight to have nothing with acceptance but these words are all accepting the information form the outer world. So “Guan” is more frequently used than “Kan” to describe the outside information got through the eyes. Although both are acceptance of textual information, in the ancients’ view, “to Guan a book” is different from “to read”. “To Guan a book” is browsing silently, acceptance without dissemination, with clear duty. “To read” is reading loudly, acceptance and dissemination at the same time, with no clear duties. It is single-channel information-acceptance using eyes only when to view a book, so it is smooth and steady. To read which is dual-channel information-acceptance using eyes and ears meantime, is in a rush and in a muddle. “To Guan a book” is elegant. He who does view a book seems to be well-rounded. To read appears to be bright. He who does read seems to be in the process of progress. Accordingly, the ancient refined scholars used “to Guan a book” far more frequently than “to read”. When referred to “Guan” in the ancient books and records no mater “to Guan a book” or to appreciate an article, ancient accented that to observe and examine the diversity and contradictoriness facts or objects should be uniformly and holistically. It is said in the book ZhouYi XiCi that “the sage finds the new changes in the world, and he observes carefully to find the rules”. He who accepts information in a way of consolidation and integrity will not be plagued by numerous and disorderly information. Only in this guideline, in accepting information, can we proceed from the easy to the difficult, from the outside to the inside, to get its pretty charm and the real knowledge and can we get the graceful bearing of Jin dynasty in watching and studying their calligraphy and painting and can we get the manners and rules of Tang dynasty in appreciating and enjoying their poems. ChengYi used to told us that In Guan, we have to proceed from the reality and persist in seeking truth from facts without stereotypes and at the same time we do not have to offer farfetched or dubious explanations, to measure another's corn by one's own Bushel. [5] Although every text contains abundant connotation, the Guaner should not interpret it insatiable. Whatever interpretation outside of the limitation will not fit the text itself. ZhuXi said “To read with stereotypes, there will be all private interpretation. He who is a hard reader will be brave; He who is a soft reader will be tolerant. There are all things in the books”. Liu Kezhuang, a poet in NanSong Dynasty, advocated that in appreciating poem, we should not give strained interpretations but be easy. He had said that in a poem that “the finest men of past centuries were always easy in enjoying poems and they never wanted to be distinctive and individual. If the fine men in the following centuries put into it, there will no word left without doubt”. It is surely that a reader will has his own interpretation based on the text. However, it is unacceptable if his interpretation is beyond the text itself or the merit. In enjoying superior works, a reader has not only to Guan in integrity and on himself but “Bo Guan”, “Jiu Guan” and “Shan Guan”. “Bo Guan” means enjoying it in a wide field, enjoying a lot of superior works. Only in the way of “Bo Guan”, can we compare them, can we improve our enjoying skills and can we give a objective appraisal in an all-round way. To this idea, LiuXie wrote in his book that he who has enjoyed thousands of pieces of music knows what kind of music is heavenly music; he who has seen thousands swords what kind of sword is useful sword. So “BoGuan” must come before knowing a fact in a comprehensive way. Enjoying superior works to form strong power of discriminating will gives the reader the power of telling good from bad. Weighing without selfishness and critiquing balanced will be a mirror of distinguishing superior works from the bad ones. Apart from “Bo Guan”, it is no use in improving enjoying skills without “Jiu Guan”. “Jiu Guan” means enjoying superior works in a long period of time, enjoying it repeatedly to go from one small clue one can see what is coming, to go from the easy to the difficult and complicated and to go from the state of dislike to the state of highly like. Ou Yangxiu knew it very well. In his book of critiquing calligraphy, he had said that he did not like Li Yong’s works at his first sight. He knew that Li Yong’s works had its interest and charm because of Li Yong is well known of being good at calligraphy. So he enjoyed it lasting a long time to find that few can do better than him. The longer time it takes, the more you like it. Being parallel to making friends, if the first step is the hardest, the friendship will last longest. Enjoying superior works repeatedly will do good to the reader to get the deeper charm and get to be interested in it. In turn, the beliked will attract the viewer very much to make the viewer be absorbed in it. As the story goes, on the way back, Ou Yangxun saw an ancient tablet written by Suo Jing so he stopped the horse to see it at first and he returned, got down to watch it after a few steps. When he was tired after a while, he sat on the blanket to enjoy. At last, in the following three days he stayed beside the ancient tablet, enjoying it day by night. He was still reluctantly to leave the tablet. Infatuated with superior works to such extent in this way of viewing can not be found again. “Shan Guan” is another way of improving enjoying skills. “Shan Guan” is enjoying the works from multi-levels and multi-angels in a flexible way. Liu Xie also gave us the method to judge an article. He suggested that an article should be judged in the following six steps: first, the types or forms; second, the genius and meaning of the language; third, continuity and innovation; forth, unity and diversity; fifth, subject or theme; sixth, prosody and rhythm.

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